


Accidentally on Purpose

by accordingtomel



Category: Merlin (TV) RPF
Genre: Coming Out, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-13
Updated: 2017-04-13
Packaged: 2018-10-18 06:16:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10610970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/accordingtomel/pseuds/accordingtomel
Summary: Colin shoots Bradley an incredulous look and just shakes his head. “Fine. Regale me with how this isn’t the stupidest idea you’ve ever had.”





	

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was originally posted on my LJ in February of 2010.
> 
>  **Original A/N:** So the other day when I was writing a particularly dark fanfic, my brain went: “NO MORE ANGST! NEED FLUFF!” Then this utterly mad idea came to mind, and suddenly this fic was born. I need to thank adelagia for the awesome beta, as well as for helping me with some brainstorming.

“You are completely mad.”  
   
“No, I’m not. This is genius, trust me.”  
   
“If by genius, you mean _insane_ , then yes, it’s genius.”  
   
“Would you just let me explain before jumping to wild conclusions?” Bradley asks pointedly. Really, Colin can be unbelievably stubborn, never mind irrational, when he chooses to be.  
   
Colin shoots Bradley an incredulous look and just shakes his head. “Fine. Regale me with how this isn’t the stupidest idea you’ve ever had.” He folds his arms across his chest and perches on the armrest of the sofa in Bradley’s flat.  
   
Bradley kind of wants to shove him off the couch. He doesn’t.  
   
Instead, he starts to explain. “I think that the best defence is a good offence,” he starts, but Colin’s already interrupting him.  
   
“I’m not really all that into sports, Bradley, but isn’t it supposed to be the other way around?”  
   
“No!” he admonishes with wag of his index finger in Colin’s general direction. Bradley’s not quite sure when he turned into his mum, but he decides it isn’t worth dwelling on at the moment.  
   
“Now, shut up and listen,” Bradley carries on, holding up his hand to indicate that Colin really needs to just be quiet for more than two seconds at a time. Honestly, it can’t be that hard. Colin rolls his eyes very elaborately and very obviously, but silently leans back against the wall nonetheless.  
   
Bradley’s been hatching this plan for several weeks now; ever since he and Colin almost got caught snogging behind the make-up tent during the second last week of filming the end of series two. That had been an incredibly close call, and both were hoping to avoid another similar incident. It wasn’t that they were ashamed or embarrassed of being together, but things were still so new, and they hadn’t wanted to share with the whole crew just yet. Plus, once word got out around set, it was only a matter of time until the information was leaked to the press, and then they’d be forced to do damage control. Bradley and Colin wanted to announce their relationship together, when the time was right, and on their own terms.  
   
“Look, the concept is really simple. We just go out there into the world and act like how we would if we _had_ publicly announced our relationship,” he starts, already feeling giddy at the sheer brilliance of the plan.  
   
“But then they’ll know we actually _are_ together, which kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?” Colin protests, rolling his eyes again for good measure. The ‘ _you idiot_ ’ part of the sentence is implied.  
   
“No, they won’t. That’s the beauty of this plan.” Bradley pauses, trying to figure out the best way to explain this to his well-intentioned but incredibly dense boyfriend. For someone apparently so intelligent, Colin seems to lack the ability to follow perfectly logical, linear thought processes. “Aside from avoiding the obvious, like holding hands and kissing, I say we go with a no holds barred approach. Looks, touches, flirting, whatever tickles your fancy.”  
   
Colin gives him a dubious look, raising both eyebrows and leaning forward to rest his hands on his knees. “I’m still waiting to hear how this isn’t the most idiotic plan in the history of mankind.”  
   
“Have a little faith in me, mate,” Bradley mutters, but is not deterred by Colin’s lacklustre enthusiasm. “Have you googled us lately?”  
   
“Pardon?”  
   
Bradley tries not to sigh. “I asked if you’ve googled us lately.”  
   
Colin simply shakes his head, looking nothing short of utterly baffled. “I know what you said; I’m just not sure what that has to do with this conversation. At all.”  
   
“You need to learn to focus,” Bradley replies with a little smirk, cuffing Colin lightly on the back of the head.  
   
“And you need to learn how to make sense,” he retorts, absently rubbing his head at the point of contact and narrowing his eyes at Bradley.  
   
“If you google us, you will find all sorts of things that imply that you and I are already together in a romantic sort of relationship. The fans are a bunch of nutters who read into every single thing that you and I do, and come to their own conclusions about the nature of our relationship,” Bradley carries on as if Colin hadn’t said a word, slowly pacing the length of the room. Colin continues to stare disinterestedly at Bradley, though he knows that in reality, Colin is actually hanging onto his every word. It’s one of his many charms. And at least Colin seems to have learned to finally sit back and simply listen.  
   
“Anyway, point being – they operate on the assumption that if we were together, we would be trying to hide our relationship from the world.”  
   
“Which we _are_ currently trying to do, Bradley,” Colin helpfully points out from his spot on the armrest. Bradley stops pacing and turns towards the other man, marching the two steps it takes to reach the sofa and leaning close into his personal space, right arm supporting his weight against the wall directly behind Colin.  
   
“Shhhhh,” he instructs, and places his left hand over top of Colin’s mouth, just in case he isn’t clear on what that word means.  
   
Before he really has time to process what’s going on, he feels a warm tongue slowly run along the inside of his palm and immediately pulls his hand away from Colin’s mouth. “What the hell, Col?”  
   
Colin smirks up at Bradley, eyes dancing playfully as he shrugs casually. “You gave me no choice, yeah?”  
   
Bradley stares down at Colin before reaching a quick decision. “I’ll show you no choice,” he declares, and wipes his open palm against Colin’s scratchy cheek. Naturally Colin tries to squirm away from him, shoving Bradley away and rubbing at his face with his sleeve.  
   
“Gross, Bradley,” Colin sputters, shooting him a glare as he continues to swipe at his cheek.  
   
“You fight fire with fire, mate,” Bradley retorts with a chuckle. “Now, let’s get back to business here. Where did we leave off?”  
   
“Something about fans expecting us to hide our love, or whatever,” Colin replies a little too quickly to sound entirely disinterested.  
   
“Right.” Bradley nods. “Okay, so here’s the thing. Everyone will expect us to hide our relationship if we’re together. But they’ll never think we’re _actually_ together unless we officially announce it. So we can pretty much do what we like and everyone will assume that we’re being too obvious to actually be in a real relationship. Do you see what I’m saying here?”  
   
Colin scratches at his chin and considers Bradley contemplatively. “Erm, kind of. Are you suggesting that we do things that seem like an accident but are really on purpose?”  
   
“Yes!” Bradley exclaims excitedly. He supposes that it’s about time that Colin started to figure what he was trying to say, even if he’s a little bit off on the details. “Well, mostly. It’s like we hide by not hiding at all. We’ll both be more at ease if we can just be ourselves in interviews without the added stress of trying to keep our relationship secret. As far as everyone else knows, we’re just a couple of blokes who are best mates. So it makes sense that we’d look at each other and touch a lot, seeing as we’re so close and comfortable with one another.”  
   
“So you want us to hide in plain sight, basically.” Colin doesn’t sound entirely convinced, but he’s not putting up quite the protest he was earlier, and Bradley takes that as a good sign. “Just be ourselves and everyone will assume that we’re being too obvious for it to be real.”  
   
“Mm hmm, yeah,” he agrees, moving back into Colin’s personal space once again. He reaches out with his right hand to cup the back of Colin’s neck, threading his fingers in the dark hair at his nape. “No kissing or holding hands, of course, which might be kind of hard, but I’m sure we can do it.”   
   
“Yeah, you’ve got me convinced,” Colin murmurs with a light chuckle, pulling Bradley down by the fabric of his t-shirt and kissing him softly on the lips.  
   
Bradley laughs when they part a few moments later. “Trust me, mate. I’ll make it worth your while,” he promises with a suggestive smirk and waggle of his eyebrows, leaning forward to capture Colin’s lips in his once more.  
   
*****  
   
As luck would have it, Johnny and Julian approach both of them the following week about doing a road trip through Wales to investigate the evidence and stories out there in connection to the Arthur and Merlin of the legends. Truthfully, Bradley isn’t exactly jumping up and down with enthusiasm at the idea, but the thought of spending a few days alone with Colin is enough to sell him on it in the end. Besides, he finds Colin’s excitement over the whole thing positively endearing. Not that he’d ever admit to such a thing, of course.  
   
*****  
   
The night before filming for the “Real Merlin & Arthur” road trip special begins, Colin decides to spend the night in Bradley’s room. Everyone thinks that Colin is so sweet and innocent and adorable, but what most people don’t know – and what Bradley _does_ – is that Colin can be a devious, cheeky little bastard when he wants to be.  
   
“You sure this is a good idea?” Bradley asks as they’re settling down for the night.  
   
“Of course it is. Why wouldn’t it be?” Colin replies with a shrug, tossing his pillow onto the bed and stripping off his shirt. The pillow is his own, because Colin says that hotel pillows are filled with germs that make him sick. Bradley thinks he might just be a bit of a pansy.  
   
However, Bradley is momentarily distracted by Colin’s lean, pasty white body and he temporarily loses his train of thought. “Um,” he says cleverly.  
   
Colin chuckles and pulls back the covers, slipping beneath them. “Well, you’ve convinced me.”  
   
Bradley rolls his eyes and turns back the sheets on his own side of the bed. “I just mean, what if we get caught? What if the cameras show up too early, or your alarm doesn’t go off and they burst in here to find us together?”  
   
Bradley expects Colin to react to this more strongly, but all he does is shrug his shoulders nonchalantly. “I like to live on the wild side.”  
   
The laughter that spills from Bradley does not stop for a good three or four minutes, and when he finally does manage to catch his breath, he’s half sprawled across the bed and looking like he’s ready to pass out from too much to drink. “You? Wild? Are you taking the piss? Morgan, that’s like saying that Katie should be a candidate for sainthood, or that you know how to hold your liquor.”  
   
Colin simply stares up at him in obvious amusement, and okay, fine, so maybe Bradley needs to work on his analogies. However, the point still stands and he knows that he’s not wrong, lame comparisons aside.  
   
“Well, maybe not in general, but I’m entitled to have some fun once in a while, yeah?”  
   
Bradley pulls himself together and crawls into bed beside Colin. “Of course,” he agrees readily. “But aren’t you the one who was all concerned about this idea in the first place?”  
   
“Yeah, but no one’s here in our room right now, so I don’t see what the fuss is,” Colin points out logically, because he’s Colin and he likes to do things like that to throw Bradley off.  
   
“All right, well, I’m not complaining,” Bradley concedes after a moment. “Just make sure that you set both alarms.”  
   
“Already done, _Sire_ ,” Colin jokingly tells Bradley with a smirk and a mocking salute.  
   
Bradley simply smacks one of the arms that’s hidden somewhere under the comforter. As soon as Colin flicks off the lamp beside their bed, Bradley reached out and pulls Colin in close, so they’re lying back to chest, with Bradley’s arm slung loosely over Colin’s hips.  
   
“Night,” he mumbles, placing a soft kiss to the expanse of skin just below Colin’s right ear.  
   
*****  
   
The next morning, at precisely 6:00 am, two different alarms go off at once – one from the clock on the nightstand, and the other from Colin’s mobile.  
   
“Oh, it is way too early for this,” Bradley mumbles sleepily, rolling away from Colin and away from the alarms, pulling the quilt up higher to cover his ears from the piercing sound. It doesn’t do much to stop the noise.  
   
“It’s not that bad,” Colin replies softly, sounding just as knackered as Bradley at the moment. They were even good last night and didn’t leave a mess for the hotel staff to clean up the next morning.  
   
A few moments later, he feels the bed shift and knows that Colin is getting up. How he does this on a regular basis, Bradley will never know. Part of him thinks that he simply doesn’t want to. Anyone who can wake up that quickly at this hour clearly has something wrong in the head. It is the only logical conclusion that Bradley can reach.  
   
Just when he is about to lose his mind from the multiple alarms ringing obnoxiously in his ears, Colin finally shuts them off. Bradley breathes an audible sigh of relief and rolls onto his back, finally prying one of his eyes open. His gaze finds Colin, dressing and grabbing all of his things off the floor and chair. It would probably look bad to have anything of Colin’s in this room, even if it could easily be explained.  
   
“Okay, well, enjoy your extra couple hours of sleep,” Colin informs him a minute later, after he does one last visual sweep of the room. “I’ll probably be eating and getting prepared to leave long before you’re even awake again.”  
   
The bed dips again as Colin leans down to plant a gentle kiss on Bradley’s mouth before he heads quietly for the hotel room door.  
   
“Oh, and make sure you brush your teeth this morning,” Colin adds before he leaves, and even though Bradley can’t see him, he just knows that the man is smirking devilishly at him.  
   
Bradley grunts a soft acknowledgement before rolling onto his stomach and promptly falling back asleep once again.  
   
Two hours later Bradley is once again rudely awakened, but this time it’s the camera crew. Bradley briefly considers telling them to bugger off, but in the end figures it’s probably better not to piss them off.  
   
Ironically, the only thing not staged about the morning interview is the fact that Bradley really did just wake up recently (though not as recently as the audience is made to believe), and the fact that Colin’s pillow is still in his bed. He notices this minor detail somewhere between the initial interview and his shower, but shrugs it off. All part of the plan, he tells himself in the end. Though he does wonder how long it’ll take for people to notice that it’s clearly a different pillow. Bradley makes a mental note to check out the internet a couple days after the programme airs.  
   
*****  
   
The drive from Cardiff to Mold actually would typically take about five hours at best, six if there was an inordinate amount of traffic and/or delays. So the fact that it takes them over seven hours seems pretty telling. Granted, Bradley had been driving slightly more carefully than he typically would, considering this isn’t even his own vehicle. And they had stopped a couple of times to film some scenic shots and do little “on the way” interviews.  
   
The reality is, though, that it shouldn’t take them as long as it does to get there. Bradley blames the traffic (it’s hard to get a proper shag in when other cars occasionally drive past and put them at risk of being caught), and Colin blames it on the fact that they took the “scenic” route (which Bradley knows is scenic for entirely different reasons; further details not required).  
   
*****  
   
About halfway through their trip, Bradley and Colin are informed that Roy Noble is seeking an interview with them. Bradley decides that he’s going to have some fun with this opportunity. He spends most of the interview staring ridiculously at Colin as if he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread (he very well may be) and touching him as often as he can through subtle “accidental bumps” (which is still not often enough). Interestingly enough, Bradley notices that Colin seems to be playing it up as well, and he’s grateful that he seems as comfortable with the plan as Bradley is.  
   
Bradley actually finds that it’s more challenging to keep his hands to himself than he’d originally anticipated and he ends up shoving his hands into his jeans pockets half the time to keep them occupied.  
   
At one point, Bradley reaches over and pinches Colin’s lower back casually (from which he naturally moves away, since Colin clearly has better filters than Bradley), only remembering immediately afterwards that they are still on camera and that was most definitely caught on tape. So he does what makes the most sense in his mind at that very moment in time. He acts completely casual, as if nothing had happened at all, ignoring the sideways glance he receives from Colin immediately following the action.  
   
Towards the latter half of the interview, Mike, one of the directors, actually forces him and Colin to stand “at least three feet from each other at all times, since you clearly cannot handle being right beside one another.” Bradley smirks to himself, but it doesn’t stop him from catching Colin’s eye when he requests “You’re the Voice” by John Farnham. He suspects the fans will appreciate it, almost as much as he and Colin do.  
   
*****  
   
At the Forbidden Planet book signing event with Angel, Bradley ends up conversing with a fan about Wales and he tells her that he’s just finished a three day road trip through the area. He is tempted to share that he was on said road trip with Colin but eventually decides that it might be pushing their whole “hiding in plain sight” plan a little too far. He imagines that as it is, this information will be spread all across the internet within a couple of hours anyway. People will already be speculating, and the announcement of the programme will occur sometime in the near future.  
   
*****  
   
Later on that month, Bradley, Colin and Katie attend the “Inside the World of Merlin” BAFTA event. They aren’t able to go together to the event as Colin has been off filming “Island” for far longer than Bradley would ever like him to be gone. Bradley is hoping that Colin would at least get there early so they could have a few minutes to catch up, but that doesn’t end up happening, and instead they find out that he’s actually been delayed slightly. Sometimes Bradley thinks the world is against him.  
   
He makes a snap decision early on and asks the woman in charge of the event that day to inform him the second that Colin arrives. She gives him a curious look, as if she’s wondering why he sounds so insistent about it, but agrees to do so all the same.  
   
Bradley passes the time impatiently by chatting with Katie and getting caught up with what she’s been up to over the past month. He updates her on his life as well, though carefully avoids speaking too much about Colin. Katie can be alarmingly perspicacious when she wants to be, and Bradley isn’t exactly the most subtle person in the world. Things end up going quite well, though, and she proves to be exactly the distraction he needs, causing Bradley to realise just how much he’s actually missed Katie. It hasn’t even been that long since he last saw her, but he decides that maybe he’ll have to be better with keeping in touch with his co-stars this time around.  
   
Bradley is called down for his interview shortly after, so he and Katie temporarily part ways.  
   
Sometime after Katie leaves to do her interview, the message arrives for him that Colin’s finally made it. Bradley nods calmly, hoping that his cool exterior isn’t betraying the inner excitement he feels as he casually walks up the stairs to find Colin.  
   
Less than five minutes later, they’re fumbling into the bathroom, after barely ensuring that no one else is in there. Bradley at least has the good sense to lock the door behind them.  
   
“I’ve missed you,” Bradley admits, mouth desperately seeking Colin’s as he pushes him up against the bathroom wall.  For several minutes they are all lips and tongues and hands, pressing into one another as if they’ve been apart for years instead of a couple of weeks.  
   
“Me too,” Colin murmurs huskily as they pull away from each other to fill their lungs with air once again.  
   
Bradley’s mouth finds Colin’s once again, tongue exploring the warmth and heat of his mouth as his hands find their way to Colin’s jeans.  
   
“Mmm, I have to do an interview in a few minutes,” Colin protests weakly, gently pushing Bradley’s hands away.  
   
Bradley pulls away to grin deviously at him. “I can be quick,” he says with a smirk.  
   
*****  
   
The very evening following the airing of “The Real Merlin & Arthur” Bradley receives a text from Katie:  
   
_OMG why didn’t u tell me?_  
   
Bradley rolls his eyes and texts back: _tell u what?_  
   
No more than thirty seconds pass before his mobile beeps again.  _that u fancy colin!_  
   
Bradley snorts, wide-eyed, as Colin peers at him over the top of the book he’s reading. “What’s going on?” he asks curiously, making one of those silly confused facial expressions that Bradley finds both ridiculous and incredibly endearing.  
   
“Nothing. Katie’s being a freak,” is what he answers, as he texts back: _R u drunk?_  
   
“Being a freak about what?”  
   
His phone beeps again.  _no. not yet. but I’m also not blind. just watched ur little road trip thing w/ my mum_  
   
Bradley frowns, wondering where the rest of that sentence disappeared to. A few seconds later the rest of the text arrives: _she asked me if u & col were shagging._  
   
Bradley immediately bursts out in incredulous laughter, shaking his head in disbelief, while Colin stares at him expectantly. He ignores Colin momentarily to respond back: _u r a lying hussy. she did not say that. haven’t u got better things to do than harass me?_  
   
“So what’s going on?” Colin demands a few moments later.  
   
Bradley just shakes his head and rolls his eyes exaggeratedly. “She thinks I fancy you, and her mum apparently wanted to know if we were shagging after watching ‘The Real Merlin & Arthur’ special that just aired.”  
   
Colin squints slightly, tilting his head thoughtfully to the side, sort of like a cat. “That’s probably not a good thing,” he finally states.  
   
Bradley shrugs casually. “It’s Katie; she’s completely crazy. Plus, she’s quite convinced that Merlin and Arthur are in love with each other. Then there’s her mum who goes online all the time, so she’s probably aware that people want us together as well. They influence each other, those nutty Irish. Can’t be trusted.” He shoots a devious smirk in Colin’s general direction and is rewarded with a full-blown glare.  
   
“Yeah... Right.”  
   
The next text arrives at that very moment: _she did. mum is a smart woman. also, u 2 looked like u wanted to jump each other the whole time._  
   
Bradley scoffs, loudly, and shoots back what he thinks about that.  _ur crazy. i think ur mum needs to cut u off from the wine now._  
   
Her response is the epitome of maturity.  _defensive much?_  
   
He decides two can play at that game.  _delusional much?_  
   
Several texts later, complete with some whining and a brief conversation with Colin to ensure he’s okay with the idea, Bradley makes plans to go out for dinner and drinks with Katie and Angel the following evening.  
   
“You sure this is a good idea?” he asks Colin once it’s clear the text wars are finally finished.   
   
Colin places the book he’s resumed reading on his lap and shrugs. “Well, we’re going to have to tell them sooner or later, right?” he reasons.  
   
*****  
   
“I don’t believe you!” Katie practically screeches, eyes nearly bugging out of her head. Angel just appears to be a little shell-shocked but is smiling knowingly at them.  
   
“Shut up, Katie,” Bradley admonishes, glancing around skittishly.  “Are you trying to make us the main focus of every single person in the pub?”  
   
She gapes at them, but somehow manages to lower her voice. “You’re just pretending to be together to get a rise out of me! I’m onto you both!”  
   
“Why would we do that?” Colin throws in with a shrug. “I’m not sure what purpose it would serve.”  
   
“Because you’re both sneaky bastards who like to play evil pranks on unsuspecting victims. Except you forget that I’m not that easy to fool!”  
   
Bradley chuckles in spite of himself. “I thought even your _mother_ believed we were shagging,” he points out cheekily.  
   
“My mum’s brain has been warped by spending too much time online,” Katie announces casually, as if this were the most common thing ever. “She thought Colin and I were shagging at some point too.”  
   
Colin lets out a little snort, to which Katie glares heatedly at him. “Point being – her opinion doesn’t really count.”  
   
“And what about yours, Katie? Weren’t you the one who texted me about fancying Colin in the first place?” Bradley waggles his eyebrows suggestively.  
   
She reaches across the table and actually slaps his arm. “I just wanted to tease you about your man crush on Colin. I’m not dumb enough to fall for this.”  
   
“I don’t know, Katie,” Angel finally pipes up, poking her gently in the shoulder. “We’ve been kind of suspecting for a while now that there was something going on between these two. Doesn’t seem to me like they’re faking. Especially given recent programmes we’ve watched on the telly.”  
   
Katie merely shakes her head and looks consolingly at Angel, as if she were a small child that just doesn’t understand the ways of the world. “Oh, Angel, honey, this is why they prank you all the time. Because you’re sweet and trusting and gullible.”  
   
Angel simply laughs, shrugging casually, but neither denies nor confirms the accusation.  
   
Katie returns her attention back to Colin and Bradley. “Fine.  _Prove_ it,” she tells them, smirking as if she’s just won the lottery.  
   
Bradley thinks the whole thing is ridiculous, but he chances a glance in Colin’s direction anyway. “We don’t have to do this,” he tells him.  
   
“It’s okay with me,” Colin responds breezily.  
   
Bradley’s eyes widen considerably. “Are you sure? It’s pretty crowded in here.”  
   
“But it’s also dark. We can be careful,” he points out logically.  
   
Bradley is about to protest once more when he feels a hand at the back of his neck, pulling him forward. A second later, his lips meet Colin’s in a rough, passionate kiss. He had originally been hoping to keep things G-rated, but when he feels Colin’s tongue run along his bottom lip, Bradley instinctively opens his mouth to allow Colin access. He soon gets lost in the taste and feel of Colin, pulling him as close as humanly possible, and even embarrassingly lets out a soft moan. When they finally pull apart to rest their foreheads against one another, both are panting heavily.  
   
“Is that proof enough for you?” Colin asks with a mischievous smirk once they turn back to see the utterly flabbergasted expressions on their friends’ faces.  
   
All they can do is nod incredulously, until Katie finally starts screaming in sheer delight.  
   
*****  
   
Three days later, Colin and Bradley appear on the “Paul O’Grady Show.”  
   
Bradley doesn’t exactly make a conscious decision to do so, but he ends up practically sitting on top of Colin throughout the entire thing. The actress sitting next to them keeps eyeing Colin throughout the interview and Bradley doesn’t really like that too much, though he doesn’t blame her for staring. Colin is a sight to behold. He also makes a point of letting people know that usually he is the one opening doors for Colin, like the gentleman that he is, and not the other way around.  
   
Bradley notices that after a while Colin is unconsciously leaning away from him. Probably because if he sat completely upright, they’d be touching from shoulder to knee, and that might be a little much for them to handle. Still, he doesn’t stop crowding Colin’s space because: a) it’s fun; and b) he likes to be physically close to Colin, pathetic as it is to admit, even in his own head.  
   
Colin gets his revenge at the end of the show, however, when he takes a step out at the same time as Bradley and ends up stepping directly on Bradley’s foot. Bradley assumes that Colin is pulling his own little prank on Bradley and makes the conscious decision to not only leave his foot precisely where it is, but also to extend his toes just a bit so he’s actually pushing up into Colin’s foot. Neither react to the contact and carry on smiling as if nothing’s going on. The whole thing lasts maybe a few seconds at best, but it’s long enough to make a statement, if anyone were even paying attention in the first place.  
   
*****  
   
And then the real hiatus hits, and aside from the odd mention here and there, both Bradley and Colin fall temporarily out of the spotlight. While Bradley doesn’t mind being a public figure most of the time, he appreciates just being able to be a regular bloke who goes about his life in peace, able to spend time with his family and friends without anyone recognising or bothering him.  
   
This carries on for a couple of months, until both Bradley and Colin are invited to come back to GMTV for an interview towards the end of February the following year.  
   
Things are going great in the interview. It’s like he and Colin had just finished an interview together the other day. Bradley feels like they are so in tune with one another that it’s almost a little frightening. He definitely doesn’t blame any of it on the fact that they’ve spent almost every free minute they had together since the filming of “Merlin” concluded.  
   
Bradley isn’t used to having to hold back with Colin over the past several months, because they’ve been out of the media’s spotlight, so it’s only natural for him to sit ridiculously close to Colin, legs pressed up against one another. Colin shifts slightly away from him after a few minutes and simply shoots Bradley a _look_ – one that only Bradley would understand as saying, “What are you doing?”  
   
Bradley keeps himself in check the rest of the interview, speaking animatedly about the sword fighting, Arthur, and the various relationships on the show. Colin offers his insights into these same topics and Bradley knows he’s watching Colin with rapt attention, but he can’t seem to care too much. Besides, it’s no worse than any other time he’s sat staring at Colin in the past.  
   
Then the host asks Bradley about whether or not he thinks the audience can expect a magic reveal from Merlin this season, and everything promptly goes to hell.  
   
“Well, I, myself, am quite a huge fan of the idea of Arthur finally finding out about Merlin’s magic. For one, the fact that Merlin’s constantly doing spells in Arthur’s vicinity makes him look like more of an idiot as time passes. No one will respect a king who doesn’t notice such a significant thing about one of his closest friends. I also think it’ll be important for the Arthur and Merlin dynamic that he finds out sooner rather than later. The longer that the secret remains between them, the longer it has potential to do further damage to the relationship. I don’t yet know if a magic reveal is in the works for this series or not, but I sincerely hope we’ll get to see it in the near future.”  
   
Bradley thinks his answer is quite eloquent, so he is surprised to see the hosts gaping incredulously at him. In addition to the bizarre looks, Bradley notes that the audience seems distressingly silent as well. Chancing a glance in Colin’s direction he is struck with a sense of abject horror, as he realises something incredibly significant – somewhere throughout his blathering about the magic reveal, Bradley started to _play absently with the hair at the nape of Colin’s neck_. And his hand is still resting there, casually, fingers entwined in his dark locks.  
   
_Shit._  
   
Bradley slowly removes his hand, as if the action would somehow erase the fact that he’d pretty much just tickled the back of Colin’s neck, even though it was painfully obvious that everyone in the studio had noticed.  
   
Bradley does his best not to blush or act out of sorts as the hosts carry on, almost as if nothing had happened. And really, the entire moment had lasted no more than a few seconds, but he knows that the damage has already been done, and it’s too late to fix anything.  
   
*****  
   
Admittedly, Bradley is actually dreadfully weary when he goes online that evening to check on the fall-out of his and Colin’s earlier interview. If there are going to be articles printed about it, they won’t appear until tomorrow or the following day. But the fan reaction will give him a sense of whether or not they’re royally buggered.  
   
After about five minutes of browsing the most popular fan forums (Bradley has done his research and he knows where to find most of the fanbase online now), the verdict is in: this time they may have gone too far. Except by “they” he really means himself.  
   
“So what are they saying?” Colin queries, coming to stand behind Bradley’s chair, where he’s sat in front of the computer.  
   
“It’s not good, mate. I mucked everything up, I think,” he shares wearily, clicking from page to page to show Colin the damage. “The fans are going wild, and who could blame them?” The interview has been uploaded by numerous people already, many have already put together “the incident” (as Bradley had started to call it earlier this afternoon) into a series of pictures catching every single moment with crystal clarity, and all of the big forums have several hundred discussion comments on the same. It’s not necessarily enough to completely out them, but there is also little that can be done to even substantiate plausible deniability.  
   
“This is a disaster,” Bradley asserts, throwing his hands up in an excessively overdramatic manner.  
   
The snort that Colin emits does little to quash his fears that he’s really buggered everything up.  
   
“I’m sorry, Col. I messed everything up. Just look at all of this stuff,” Bradley gestures towards the screen adamantly.  
   
Colin comes over to stand silently behind Bradley, reading over the top of his head for several minutes before loosely wrapping his arms around Bradley’s shoulders and squeezing lightly. “It could be worse,” he finally states.  
   
Bradley twists in his chair so he can glance up at Colin in disbelief. Maybe Colin had finally, officially lost his mind. “How?”  
   
“You could have kissed me on national telly,” Colin suggests with a smirk and a wink.  
   
Bradley has absolutely no idea how he can be so calm about this whole thing. And to joke about it, even? Nope, it’s official – Colin _has_ lost his mind, Bradley concludes. He decides to tell him as much. “Now you’re the one who’s completely gone mad,” Bradley informs him, barely able to hold back the sulky tone of voice he so desperately wants to use.  
   
Colin’s response is to laugh, long and loud and heartily, until the captivating sound of his jovial voice even starts to melt the fear and anxiety coiling in Bradley’s gut. When he finally gets it together enough to form coherent sentences, Colin slowly swivels Bradley’s chair around so they’re facing one another. Reaching down, he cups Bradley’s face with his hands, running one of his thumbs soothingly against Bradley’s jaw line.  
   
“Look, Bradley, we’ve been together for about six months now. I think it’s safe to say that we’re both in this for the long haul.” He smiles so warmly that Bradley can’t help but feel reassured, in spite of everything, and he nods his confirmation. “We’ve been hiding for long enough, I think. So if this is our time to come out, then it’s our time. And if not, then we can carry on how it’s been until we decide we want to do it. Either way, I’m with you on this completely. Whatever happens, happens, as far as I’m concerned.”  
   
As Colin leans in to place a soft kiss on his lips, all of Bradley’s fears start to dissipate. This is just one of the numerous reasons why he loves Colin – he’s so logical and reasonable, especially at times when Bradley can’t seem to be – and he feels reassured that they _are_ truly in this together, no matter what happens. And he thinks that maybe, just maybe, his genius idea might not have been so insane after all.  
 


End file.
